But on Friday, authorities said McGee, 34, was in fact the killer. Charged with one count of first-degree murder, he was ordered held without bail.

At the bond hearing, authorities said McGee, of the 1500 block of East 74th Street, said in a videotaped statement that his mother was “driving him crazy” and “always nagging him.”

“I just snapped, that’s all,’’ he said, according to prosecutors.

Aletha McGree had been shot several times when she was found the basement of her Burnside neighborhood home in the 9000 block of South Dobson Avenue shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

Prosecutors said sometime between Sunday and Tuesday, she became embroiled in an argument with her son, who drew a revolver and shot her six times at close range as she sat in a recliner.

Earnest McGee fled in his mother’s red Ford Focus with the keys to her home. On Tuesday night, he asked police to conduct a well-being check on her because he was concerned she wasn’t answering the phone or the door, prosecutors said.

He told responding officers he made several attempts to enter her home but could not get inside.

Police found that rear door was unlocked with a key broken off in the lock.

Officers found Aletha McGee seated in a chair in an unlit area of the basement, according to a police report.

The Focus was found Wednesday near Earnest McGee's home and the gun was inside the vehicle’s trunk, prosecutors said.

Witnesses told detectives he had made admissions to them that he killed his mother and even showed one witness where he parked the Focus, prosecutors said.

A grandmother, Aletha McGee lived at her home for about 40 years. News of the death shocked neighbors who said the block is comprised of families who have lived there for decades.

“I'm hurt. I'm very hurt because I just can't believe it,” said Weader Ross, McGee's longtime neighbor. Ross told WGN-TV that McGee was a “beautiful person” who regularly brought her freshly picked vegetables.

Aletha McGee’s body was found the same night police discovered a 75-year-old man fatally stabbed in his home just blocks away.

Donald Ellens’s body was found at his home in the 9000 block of South East End Avenue in the Calumet Heights neighborhood shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said.